"I'm done for." Sun Li'en sighed heavily in his heart, not daring to speak aloud. Whether he could become a doctor in the future didn't matter anymore. But if he couldn't even tell male from female, that was bound to cause major problems later.
"Xiao Sun!" Zhou Jun called several times before finally snapping Sun Li'en out of his panic. He asked with clear dissatisfaction, "What are you doing?"
Deputy Director Liu, on the other hand, was more forgiving. "Xiao Sun just started his rotation in our ER. Seeing such severe trauma, it's understandable to be a bit distracted. But you do need to work on controlling your emotions. A patient's life often depends on our decisions. You must be meticulous."
Sun Li'en coughed twice and said with uncertainty, "Dr. Zhou, something seems off."
"What is it?" Zhou Jun followed Sun Li'en's gaze, looking over Lin Lan and then glancing at the monitors. "Looks fine."
"Look here." Sun Li'en stood in place, raising his hand slightly to point at the somewhat worn belt around her waist, lowering his voice. "This belt buckle... doesn't it seem a bit too tight?"
Zhou Jun still wore a confused expression. "Tight? Then loosen it..." Before he could finish, he suddenly saw Deputy Director Liu dart to the patient's side, his face tense as he undid Lin Lan's belt.
"Possible internal hemorrhage." After lightly tapping Lin Lan's abdomen a few times with his fingers, Deputy Director Liu made a rapid, serious judgment. "Significant bleeding, estimated over 500 milliliters. Send for a CT scan immediately. Don't wait for the family. Contact the Medical Affairs Department for emergency surgical authorization. Operate as soon as the CT results are in!"
Doctors from other departments absolutely cannot operate on a patient without the consent of the patient or their family. This involves complex legal issues like the right to informed consent. But the Emergency Department is different. For humanitarian reasons, if a patient's condition is critical, the ER can perform surgery without notifying the family, provided they have permission from the hospital's Medical Affairs Department.
And Lin Lan's current situation fell precisely into that "critical" category.
Sun Li'en was also stunned. In truth, he had only thought of the line of text from his hallucination and felt the overly tight belt might affect the patient's breathing—after all, a deep indentation had been pressed into Lin Lan's stomach. Anyone wearing a belt that tight would likely be uncomfortable. He hadn't expected Deputy Director Liu Tangchun to actually detect internal bleeding.
"Judging by this girl's build, she probably exercises regularly, might even be an athlete," Deputy Director Liu explained to his star pupil, Zhou Jun. "Thankfully for that. Her body fat percentage is low, and her waist is small, so internal bleeding easily causes a change in waist circumference. For an average person, internal bleeding would need to exceed 1000 milliliters to cause a noticeable change in waist size." He nodded with a hint of belated fear. "Xiao Sun did well. Very observant."
Sun Li'en nodded sheepishly, not daring to say he was only worried about the patient's breathing. After a nurse brought the warmed blood bags and started the transfusion for Lin Lan, Deputy Director Liu personally led the team. Sun Li'en, having just contributed, followed along with two nurses. The four of them pushed the hospital bed towards the CT room outside the resuscitation area.
A considerable line had formed outside the ER CT room, but most were non-critical Level 4 patients. They had the time and life to wait. The Lin Lan on the bed did not. Sun Li'en's group bypassed the waiting area entirely, pushing the bed straight into the CT room.
A murmur of discontent rippled through the waiting crowd. Among those registered in the ER, besides those with severe, life-threatening conditions, were many who simply "felt their case was urgent." They might only have symptoms like a headache, fever, or runny nose, thus believing they needed immediate treatment. After registering, they found themselves relegated to Level 4 status, shuttling between various examination departments.
"Don't you understand 'first come, first served'?" An old lady with a bandaged head complained loudly at Sun Li'en. "I've been waiting here for almost an hour with my head split open, and no one cares! Why does your 'connected person' get to cut in line on a bed?"
Sun Li'en ignored her,顺便 (shùnbiàn - conveniently/at the same time) dismissing the line of text above the old lady's head—"Zhao Weihong, Female, 67, Scalp Laceration ~0.3 cm." The Lin Lan on the bed needed an abdominal CT to check for bleeding immediately. In a race against death, stopping for such trivialities would cost the patient her life.
"Ready, one, two, three!" Sun Li'en and the two other young nurses chanted in unison, pulling on the sheet to transfer Lin Lan onto the CT scanner bed. But just from that movement, the nearby monitor began emitting a sharp alarm.
"BP's dropping again." Liu Tangchun frowned deeply. "Push another dose of norepinephrine. Maintain the pressure for now. We must get this scan done no matter what..."
Sun Li'en hurriedly grabbed a syringe from the nearby crash cart and was about to tear open the packaging when he suddenly felt a warmth on his body. Lin Lan, lying on the scanner bed, had opened her mouth and vomited all over him. "Is she awake?" Sun Li'en,顾不上 (gù bù shàng - not having time to care about) the mess on himself, moved to check on her.
"Hold her down!" Director Liu displayed reflexes like a young man, darting to Lin Lan's side the moment she finished vomiting. He pressed down firmly on her upper limbs with both hands while shouting at Lin Lan, "Don't move! We're doctors! We're trying to save you!"
It was hard to imagine a twenty-three-year-old girl possessing such strength. Liu Tangchun, who stood 1.7 meters tall, was nearly thrown off his feet. As Lin Lan struggled, her throat continuously made choking, coughing sounds.
Seeing the situation turning critical, Sun Li'en rushed up to help. The combined weight of two men and one nurse pressing down on Lin Lan barely subdued her struggles. "The patient is agitated. Possibly—"
"Intracranial hemorrhage." Liu Tangchun shared Sun Li'en's assessment. "Get a bottle of mannitol and 5mg of haloperidol." Liu Tangchun then instructed, "Administer the mannitol immediately. Haloperidol via IV push. We are finishing this scan no matter what!"
Under the influence of the haloperidol, Lin Lan's struggles soon ceased completely. Sun Li'en was finally able to take off his vomit-soaked white coat, granting himself temporary relief from the smell of stomach acid. He then stepped out of the CT room, intending to drop the coat off in the lounge first.
"Young man." The protesting auntie from earlier was sharp-eyed and quick-handed, grabbing Sun Li'en's arm. "This isn't right, what you're doing. How can you cut in line? Don't you understand 'first come, first served'?"
"The young lady just wheeled in is a critical patient," Sun Li'en explained helplessly. "If her injuries weren't severe, the department head wouldn't be escorting her personally." Above the auntie's head, like everyone else, floated a line of text: "Zhao Weihong, Female, 67, Scalp Laceration ~0.3 cm."
"What critical patient? I think she's faking it." The auntie, like a sage who had seen it all, was supremely confident in her judgment and began expertly obfuscating. "A young girl like that, using such tricks just to skip the line! Shameless!"
Sun Li'en didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Why would she come to the hospital if she were fine? She was in a car accident—"
"How would I know about such things?" The auntie dismissed Sun Li'en's explanation with scorn. "This line-cutting of yours won't do! My head is bleeding, and the doctor won't even order a scan for me! After you're done checking your 'connected person,' you have to check me too! And you have to check me in two more areas! Otherwise, I'm reporting you!"